1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an absorbent article such as a sanitary napkin or an incontinent pad, and more particularly to an absorbent article which exhibits excellent antileakage properties and also provides excellent feeling during use.
2. Description of Related Art
Heretofore, an absorbent article such as a sanitary napkin had problems such as (a) discharged body fluids flow on the surface of a topsheet without being absorbed by an absorbent member, (b) discharged body fluids ooze sideways in the absorbent article in the topsheet, and (c) body fluids once absorbed exude to the topsheet of the absorbent article and ooze sideways, thereby leaking from the side portions.
Thus, in order to overcome the above problems, (1) Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open 64-45801 and Japanese Patent Publication 57-45178 and (2) Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open 2-88625, etc. propose an absorbent article comprising a groove disposed in the longitudinal direction of the absorbent article, whereas (3) Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open 3-33622 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open 2-277453, etc. propose another absorbent article comprising antileakage walls on side edge portions of the absorbent article.
However, the absorbent articles according to (1), (2) and (3) above do not yet fully overcome the above problems.
In the absorbent articles according to the proposals provided in (1), (2) and (3) above, as long as the absorbent article is worn in an ideal state such that both the grooves and antileakage walls are maintained in the same stable configuration as before being worn, occurrence of side leakage of body fluids can be prevented to some extent by trapping the surface-flowing body fluids by the grooves and antileakage walls. However, with these absorbent articles the distance between the topsheet and the absorbent member must be small, and as a consequence the body fluids once absorbed are readily returned to the topsheet from the absorbent member. The result is that the body fluids which return to the topsheet unfavorably ooze out of the topsheet and leak therefrom.